Brussels is Belgium’s stereotypical capital city, filled with Artsy Deco taverns, unique flemish art, elevated Gothic cathedrals, and charming houses.
However, that’s not all it’s known for, new research done by Remitly, a financial service provider, indicates that Brussels has the most restaurant choice per person when it comes to offering the widest variety of international cuisine options.
Brussels is a home to a large number of immigrants and people of immigrant backgrounds, hence, having a varied culinary offering and leaving locals and visitors spoilt for choice.
Some of the popular local favourites include moules-frites and Belgian waffles, it also has a large proportion of Thai, French and Italian restaurants, as well as boasting five two Michelin-star eateries and 13 one-star restaurants.
Four US cities featured in the top 10, such as; Las Vegas, Atlanta, Portland and San Francisco.
Osaka, Japan was second and Geneva in Switzerland was third. Four of the top 10 cities on the list are European, two are Asian and four are North American. Revered culinary destination Paris was eighth whilst London was only 82nd.
Remitly used Tripadvisor data to discover how many restaurants were listed for each city, subtracted the number of native restaurants, and then used population data to work out the number of international restaurant options available versus the city’s total population.
Jago McKenzie, head of region, UK at Remitly said: “Entire food scenes have been changed over time by the movement of people and the introduction of new foods and ways to prepare it. We are all richer for this blended heritage of restaurants, bistros, cafés, and food stalls run by first- or second-generation immigrant families that allows us to experience cities in ever more gastronomically exciting ways.’’
"As people are thinking about where to move to or visit in 2022, we hope our findings will help inspire and educate as to the power and benefits of immigration on the culinary offerings of cities around the world. At the very least it’s given us a long list of cities and restaurants to visit!“ McKenzie said.